The exact details of our project are still in progress but here is where we are for now:
We are going to investigate user task preferences for earning L$ in Second Life. What we are thinking of is building a structure that contains from 3-5 task choices. We have not decided on what tasks yet (suggestions are welcome) but for now we are thinking about camping, filling out a survey, building a simple object (think sweatshop!), and whatever else seems feasible. We will go out and recruit participants. Participants will be teleported to the structure. After reading a consent form (gotta love IRB) users will then select a task. Each task will be balanced for how much time they take to complete (e.g., all the tasks will take 15 minutes). Upon completion of the task they will receive L$ and be teleported out of the building.
We have not set a price yet but we want to make it significant enough to attract participants.
Participants can only choose one task and they can only participate once. We think this will inform two questions:
1) What common tasks do people prefer to perform for L$
2)Whatever questions we ask on the survey task! (probably questions like where do they spent time and money in SL, how long they have been a resident, do they own a business in SL? in RL? demographic data, etc...)
We would then report frequency and descriptive statistics for task preference and report the results of whatever we decide to ask on the survey task.
One other thing we would like to do is have small forced choice mini-survey at the beginning or end of each task (no matter what task they choose) so that we can further subdivide task preference based on user characteristics.
This is the idea. We have no idea how we are going to make any of it happen but thats where group 1 is as of last night.
3 comments:
The proposed research sounds very practical and applicable to the SL environment. I have faced the same dilemma of whether to camp, fill out surveys, or get a SL job to earn some L$. Each has it's pros and cons.
Camping seems to be the easiest except it causes you to be stuck in one place for a period of time where you could be doing something else in SL. It's worked well lately if I'm doing other school work but the computer is on, I have no problem leaving my avatar on a bench and moving the camera once in a while so that I don't get logged out. I have found that I prefer doing next to nothing and earning money.
Another interesting thing I find about camping is the L$/time spent ratio and what people choose. I found an island where you had the choice between L$1/12 minutes, L$2/30 minutes, or L$3/45 minutes. I noticed a lot of people opted for the larger payout without considering how long they had to sit. I chose to stay put on the L$1 seat and earn L$3 in 36 total minutes versus sitting for 45 minutes. Greater return for time spent.
As for survey, I have completely avoided them. First, I do worry that providing an e-mail address will lead to endless SPAM. I've also noticed some fine print about whether some third-party will actually pay or not.
I haven't pursued a job in SL. When many people would choose not to have a job in RL if they could afford it, why get one in SL?
I look forward to seeing what you learn from your research.
Going in the order in which it is mentioned:
How many participants do you expect/want to recruit in order to have a significant sample? How is the recruiting process going to be handled? e.g. if you recruit in a place where slackers gather to do nothing..etc, you get the idea.
How do you plan to get the word out? What amount of money/salary are you considering so that people would be interested in participating? is there another "bonus" that might function as an attractor in the first place?
How are the tasks going to be designed so that it is not obvious which gives more for less? I think the number of tasks (I of course might be wrong and there might be an expert on this type of research among you that has better data) has to be larger to blur the distinction at least in the surface. Maybe in effect they are very similar, sort of like testing a market for "color preference", shelf location" etc.
About teleporting to the structure you have to investigate that aspect ASAP since as you know Gator Island or the Swamp are restricted areas and therefore require "administrative invitations" etc. Just want to make sure that you don't plan for something that ends up not feasible (I am not saying it is not).
You mention IRB (are you kidding?) I don't think that is necessary. Of course you might come up with a consent form to protect whatever needs protection but other than that you are not conducting research on unaware subjects, nor are you going to try drugs on them or such other things that might require such measure. (again I defer to the specialists)
Having said all that I think the basic idea has a lot of potential and should be explored much further. For example, you could build a "public" environment where you let people wander around an do whatever they want to do with the obvious premise that they will make some money no matter what. Sort of like going into a casino knowing that you are going to win. Then you could design the different tasks and place them in such a way that you can not only analyze preferences in regards to the task but also things like how avatars move or flow around the place, what makes one task more attractive than the other. Is it the avatar choosing because he/she is making a "choice" based on what? perhaps it is your desing, the color, the size, the position in spaces etc. that makes one more attractive than others. How are you going to do "blind" tests on this issues?
Anyway, interesting and not very easy if you want real results.
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